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Onthe5thdayofour Western Livestock Journal Texas "Legacy" Tour we vis- ited the American Quarter Horse Association Hall of Fame and Museum in Am- arillo. It was so interesting to find familiar names of horses; photos of peo- ple you knew and remem- ber in the Hall of Fame. Bill Verdugo, Fresno State Ag Professor when he joined AQHA in 1957. 21st presi- dent in 1971; foreign mar- kets and youth activities programs and a new award designation of "AQHA Su- perior Horse" which would be awarded to any horse that earned 50 or more points in one recognized event was implemented. He was honored in 1994. Hall of Fame 1991, Poco Lena with Don Dodge aboard (1949-1968). Oil paintings by Orren Mixer, included Poco Lena, Wimpy (1937-1959), Leo (1940- 1967), and King (1932-1958). The lobby floor had the Foundation bloodlines, and how they intertwined in the early years. The featured exhibit, "The Bold and Beautiful, Trailblazing Women of the American Quarter Horse", features 12 women who made a tremendous impact on the AQHA, as an asso- ciation and a breed. Some were breeders, some were owners and competitors, and others recorded history and life at the time. Alphabetical listing: Nancy Dear, Carol Har- ris, Ginger Hyland, Mildred Janowitz, Suzanne Jones, Anne Marion (6666 Ranch), Helen Michaelis, Betty Nix, Harriett Peckham, Carol Rose, Mrs. Fisher E. Sim- mons — "Miss Polly", and Anne Burnett Tandy, (6666 Ranch). We learned how reg- istrations are handled in the headquarters build- ing, across the street from museum. It is 7 days turn around on registration cer- tificates compared to 45 in the past. $35 to regis- ter a horse, and six billion horses, here and abroad. The Chinese quarter horses are registered as English names, not Chinese. It used to be micro-files, and now it is micro-chip. Upstairs, they backup every night. Take it offsite at night, and reinstall in the morning. Everything is done in house including banners and awards. A fascinating morning spent at the Mu- seum. Lunch was at the Big Texan, where we found slot machines, a laser gun range, extensive gift shop, the 72 ounce steak and a delicious 10 ounce prime rib, with scalloped pota- toes, string beans, bacon/ onion, toss green salad, fresh fruit and cheese cake. A strolling musician enter- tained while we ate. We have learned some- thing new on every WLJ trip, and this time it was timely and exciting. West Texas A & M unveiled their five year project of cloning a beef animal, and we were able to see the bull, Al- pha, that was cloned from a Prime, Yield Grade 1 steer carcass in 2012 and the Gamma cows. Dr. Ty Lawrence, Profes- sor of Animal Science, Di- rector Beef Carcass Re- search Center, West Texas A&M University, told us their goal was to develop a new "breed" of cattle from a composite of many breed crosses, and to provide unique learning opportuni- ties for the students. We met in an audito- rium on campus where we learned the background of this project, then drove to the research farm to see the animals. Quality grading de- pends on Marbling-subjec- tive evaluation of the quan- tity of intramuscular fat in the longissimus mus- cle between the 12th and 13th ribs. 4.59% will grade prime; 28.72% will grade premium choice; 41.46% will grade choice; 21.11% will grade select; and no roll will be 4.12%. 61.52% will be black hided. From USDA National Steer & Heifer Estimated Grading Percent Report. Muscle and fat are an- tagonists, with few Yield Grade 1 carcasses grading prime. In 2005 while collecting data on carcasses he saw a heifer carcass, YG-1 Prime. Lawrence thought of clon- ing these prime YG-1, and starting in 2010, he had found only 44 in the past 6 years. Prime and YG 1 occur at a rate of 1 per 2,500. For cloning, they refined that to a rate of 1 per 15,400. Tis- sue sample from clone can- didates are sent to a lab that processes DNA look- ing for growth, quality, and palatability traits. The cell donor was not alive, using a steer cell to create a bull embryo and a heifer cell for a female. The chart showed a cell donor gives cells cultured for transfer. Select a donor cell, then transfer of donor cell into the enucleated oo- cyte. While a oocyte donor has a mature oocyte, they remove the nucleus from the oocyte —Enucleation, resulting in a enucleated oocyte. Next is fusion of the cell with the enucleated oocyte which results in a clone embryo. They trans- fer the cloned embryo into a recipient cow, and with normal gestation time a cloned animal results. He told us they get egg donors from slaughter house, remove the DNA, fuse cell to egg and grow 8 days in incubator to get an embryo. The bull Alpha is 86% Angus, 14% Brahma Zebu, and is 2,700 pounds com- ing 4 years old. The heifer Gamma, phe- notype was cloned three times, and got three copies of the same animal. Genet- ically identical, blood type the same, born in 2012. The heifers were not pretty, since they are 100% Wagu, but the bull is decent look- ing. They had 23 grade 1 embryo's and got 13 calves on the ground. 9 were bull calves and 4 heifers. They kept 2 as bulls and 7 were slaughtered with results to be announced on June 29th. While not clones them- selves, the 13 calves of Al- pha and the Gammas were the first bovine offspring ever produced from two cloned carcasses. USDA graded one Prime, 3 were High Choice, 3 were Aver- age Choice. Industry aver- age is Low Choice, fewer than one in 20 carcasses grades Prime. All 7 were YG 1 or 2, while industry aver- age is 3. www.cattlenetwork. com/news/industry/cloned- calves-carcass-results-un- wrapped." West Texas A&M University unwrapped the carcass results on some of the progeny of their cloned calves Wednesday — and they had some impressive news to report. Impres- sive like 100% YG 2 or bet- ter and 86% choice and 14% prime. "At the moment Tyson's grid would have awarded each cwt of those animals $24 for the prime, $8 for the CAB certifica- tion, $6.50 for the YG1 and $2.50 for the YG2. "The steers produced 16% less seam fat, 45% more marbling and 9% more ribeye poundage. Lawrence said that they gained just 2.9 lbs a day on feed, but converted at 7.2. That ADG came with- out implants. "Next step for WT is to compare the Alpha bull to top AI sires from the Angus, Simmen- tal and Charolais breeds. They've exposed 1,300 cows and expect for the calves to be treated generically, right through the feedyard." JeanBartonhasbeen writing her column in the Daily News since the early 1990s. She can be reached by e-mail at jbarton2013@ gmail.com. JEANBARTON A visit to the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame COURTESYPHOTO The Western Livestock Journal Texas "Legacy" Tour on the grounds of the American Quarter Horse Association, Amarillo, Texas. After more than 50 years of research, the tick-borne bacterium responsible for one of the most troubling and economically devas- tating cattle diseases in the Western United States has been named and genetically characterized by research- ers at the University of Cal- ifornia, Davis. "This is a most unusual bug, a 'Ripley's Believe It or Not' bacterium, and the tick that carries it is equally bi- zarre," said veterinary im- munologist Jeffrey Stott, who has led the effort to de- velop a preventive vaccine for the malady that west- ern ranchers know all too well as "foothill abortion disease." Using an electron micro- scope, Stott and colleagues physically examined the bacterium in tissue sec- tions taken during post- mortem exams of aborted calves. They then character- ized it by partially sequenc- ing three of its genes and named it "Pajaroellobacter abortibovis," recognizing the Pajaroello tick that car- ries the bacterium as well as its abortion-inducing im- pact on infected cows and their fetuses. The findings of this study are reported in the Aug. 30 issue of the journal Veter- inary Microbiology, now available through Science- Direct.com. The disease, which oc- curs in California's coastal mountains and the foothill regions of California, South- ern Oregon and Northern Nevada, annually results in the death of an estimated 45,000 to 90,000 unborn calves. Vaccine trials to prevent the disease are now in the second year, thanks to a longtime partnership be- tween UC Davis, the Uni- versity of Nevada, Reno, and the California Cattle- men's Association. During the first year, some 9,000 heifers throughout Califor- nia were inoculated with the live vaccine several months before they become pregnant. Ranchers in California and neighboring states have struggled with foothill abortion disease at least as far back as the 1940s. While the disease seemed to have little impact on the health of the pregnant cows graz- ing in the foothills, it re- sulted in their calves being aborted, stillborn or born so weak that they soon died. In the 1980s, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medi- cine researchers found evi- dence that the infected cow fetuses were producing an immune response to an un- identified microbe. Between 2000 and 2010, Stott and colleagues identified the microbe as a member of the genus Myxococcus and de- veloped techniques to grow the live bacteria in labora- tory mice. Cells from such mice were eventually used to develop the vaccine. "This bacterium is like no other animal pathogen ever described," Stott said. "It probably replicates only once per day, which ex- plains why we were un- able to cultivate it using standard laboratory tech- niques." He noted that the bac- terium also has a much smaller genome than the most closely related, char- acterized bacterium, indi- cating that Pajaroellobacter abortibovis has probably lost some of its genetic ma- terial as it evolved. UC DAVIS Bizarre bacteria causing major cattle disease named Patrick's Pumping SepticPumpingServices Red Bluff, CA Garet Patrick Owner/Operator 530-366-6899 4patricks@att.net Available 24/7 CALIC#778199 GERBER 385-1153 HINKLE ROOFING & CONSTRUCTION, INC RUNNINGS ROOFING and CONSTRUCTION SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 No Money Down! 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